China issued its first public statement regarding claims that the government is prohibiting the use of Apple's iPhones by select state officials. It said that Beijing had highlighted what it claimed to be security concerns about the gadget, The New York Times reported.
Alleged iPhone Ban in Local Offices
The Foreign Ministry spokesperson, Mao Ning, provided only general information in her remarks during a briefing in Beijing. She referred to media reports concerning iPhone security issues without providing any more context.
According to CNBC, Ning added that iPhones and other foreign-made handsets were not banned. "China has not issued any laws, regulations or policy documents prohibiting the purchase and use of mobile phones from foreign brands such as Apple," she said on Wednesday, September 13.
The statements follow reports that certain local offices have been instructed to refrain from using iPhones. There have also been online reports of notices delivered to government workers and state-owned firms encouraging them to switch to domestically made mobile brands. Despite China's notoriously stringent internet censorship, reports of this ban have not been removed.
Following the rumors, Apple shares initially plummeted because investors worried that the company would lose its position in China, the biggest smartphone market in the world.
Requiring Officials to Avoid Foreign Tech
It is not new to demand that government workers be restricted from using foreign technologies.
Officials in China have been discouraged from using foreign smartphones. Government agencies have been instructed to replace American computer servers and other gadgets with Chinese ones for at least a decade.
The United States has restricted Huawei, a Chinese telecoms giant, and set limitations on shipments of sophisticated US semiconductor technology to China. TikTok, a popular social media app, has been the target of efforts to limit its usage by government workers in certain regions in the US.
Even still, if Apple ran into serious trouble in China, it would be an indication that tensions between Beijing and Washington were rising. About 20% of sales and most production for the American tech giant take place in China, sustaining hundreds of thousands of employees there.
The release of Huawei's Mate 60 Pro last week marked the latest strike in the ongoing US-China tech conflict, with smartphones serving as a particularly salient target. Chinese nationalists hailed Huawei phone's sophisticated features as proof that China had created its own processors, but it is now under investigation in the US to see whether it goes against the ban on the US semiconductor technology imposed by the Biden administration.
